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-   -   An extraterrestrial lookout: 4000 miles through the Canyons & Deserts of USA (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travelogues/180396-extraterrestrial-lookout-4000-miles-through-canyons-deserts-usa.html)

My wife and I had heard and read a lot of stories in our childhood about frequent UFO spottings and landings, most of which always originated in the deserts of Southwestern USA. Now being so close to that mysterious land, we decided to chase our dreams of unearthing those fascinating stories.

Also, winter is fast approaching in the Northeastern part of USA. Since Vitamin-D is a rare commodity in this part of world for almost 4-5 months during winter, we wanted to stock up enough of it in our bodies before the season started. This is when we planned for a long road trip in the Southwestern part of USA where Vitamin-D is found in abundance. As a health conscious couple, we made some serious calculations and concluded that 7 days of roaming around the deserts and canyons would give us sufficient Vitamin-D for the Winter (Psst! The actual figure of 7 days was derived based on Vitamin-M and Vitamin-L*).

*Vitamin-L: Leaves approved in office.

Preparation:

My initial plan was to drive all the way from Boston to Las Vegas, roam around and drive back to Boston. It would have taken at least 3 weeks to accomplish this. Driving through the great plains of central USA is quite boring and also lack of Vitamin-L in our respective workplaces made us decide against this plan. We then planned to fly to Las Vegas, hire a rental car, drive around and fly back to Boston.

We initially decided go between September 3rd and 11th thus making use of the Labor day holiday. Since Labor day is the last holiday of summer and the last long weekend before the schools reopen, almost everyone would be on road. We wanted to avoid the holiday crowd and hence planned our vacation from September 10-17. I started searching for good flight deals and the only option of direct flight between Boston and Las Vegas was Spirit Airlines. All other airlines had a stopover. I had read lots of negative reviews about the ultra low cost carrier Spirit Airlines and was skeptical to fly with them. Since it was the only direct and fastest option, I went head and booked tickets. The second part of planning was booking a rental car. My company has tie-ups with various rental car agencies here and Hertz gave me the best deal. Car was finalized. Since our trip was during the off-season, we got great discounts in most of the hotels.

All the bookings were done way back in April. While I took the in-charge of preparing the routes, booking car, flights and hotels, my wife took care of preparing and packing snacks, clothes and other logistics for the road trip.

My wife prepared sufficient snacks just a couple of days before the trip. These snacks easily last for a week under any weather conditions:
Nankhatai:


Maddur vada:


Dry fruits ladoo:


Murmura:


Peanut-Sesame ladoo:


Tamarind sauce (to mix with rice):


One of our close friends was kind enough to lend her electric rice cooker. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise for our trip. For vegetarians like us, options are very limited here when it comes to eating out. Both of us are also not fond of eat-outs. We also can't survive for a week with just breads and burgers :)


My wife bought a Igloo Cooler for storing yogurt, milk and cucumbers for the trip:

Day 0:

Our flight to Las Vegas was at 5 PM EST on September 10th from Boston Logan International airport. One of my close friends dropped us to the airport. Spirit Airlines charges anything and everything other than the ticket including the boarding pass printout. We had done online check-in a day before and had carried the boarding pass printout to avoid $20 (+ tax) charge for printing the pass at the counter. The flight took off at the scheduled time and landed at Las Vegas 15 minutes before the schedule at 8 PM PST. The 5.5 hours flight journey was uneventful. The experience with Spirit Airlines was good, contrary to the negative reviews online.

A shuttle bus took us to the McCarran Rent-A-Car center. The person at the Hertz counter was super friendly and all the formalities got completed in just 5 minutes. I was directed to the Hertz parking lot and this gleaming black beauty was waiting for us. I had booked a Mercedes Benz C300 for our drive:





The boot gobbled up the two bags easily:


More pics of the car:























It was a 2016 model with 14K miles on the odometer. After collecting the car, we set out to the hotel - Silverton Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas. On our way to the hotel, we stopped at a Walmart and bought enough water bottles and other stuff which my wife had listed for the drive. We reached hotel at around 9:30 PM and retired for the day.

Silverton Hotel & Casino. All the hotels which we booked in Nevada had two queen size beds (even though I had booked for a single queen size bed).


We also bought lot of coconut water tins to keep ourselves hydrated in the heat:

Day 1:

Our first day plan was to just drive through the deserts and valleys of Central Nevada and reach Salina in Utah. The direct route from Las Vegas to Salina is just 310 miles which takes about 4.5 hours. But my detour was almost 800 miles.

Extraterrestrial Highway, Nevada:
This is a 100 mile stretch between Crystal Springs and Warm Springs in Nevada. I had read a lot about this road in various books and blogs. It passes through the Nellis Air Force Range and is supposedly a favorite place to spot UFOs and alien activities ;). This is termed as the loneliest road of America. True to it's name, we spotted just around 4-5 cars in the entire 100 miles stretch of this highway. It has some very good scenic moonscapes. The vastness of these views cannot be captured in a camera but has to be experienced by visiting the place. I thoroughly enjoyed driving on this highway. Being used to the crowded highways of NorthEast, this was a welcome change. There are no services on this road. The only town on this highway is Rachel which is having a small alien themed restaurant. There is no gas station at this town.

Since we had to drive for 800 miles, we started from Las Vegas at 5:30 AM. Since there are no services at ET highway, we filled up the tank in the rest area at I-15 exit for US-93. This is the best place to fill gas and buy other essentials before venturing into the alien territory. The next town where we can find any kind of shop is at Tonopah which is around 230 miles from the I-15 exit. There are couple of small gas stations on US-93 before entering ET highway at Crystal Springs.

Entering the ET highway at Crystal Springs. Crystal Springs is a small ghost town:


Arrow straight roads in the alien territory:


Aliens might use this as a runway to land their spaceships ;):











The vastness of the area cannot be captured in the camera:


Alien Research Center near Crystal Springs. Just a tourist attraction:





Near Mt Irish Wilderness area:

Our quest for finding extraterrestrial life continued:























Reached the end of ET highway at Warm Springs but couldn't find any traces of extraterrestrial activity in the area ;). But it was a very satisfying driving experience.

The route we took to reach Warm Springs from Las Vegas:

Big Smoky Valley scenic drive:

After ET highway, our plan was to take US-6 West towards Tonopah and take the NV-376 to reach US-50 at Austin. NV-376 is known as Big Smoky Valley scenic drive which passes through the valley between Humboldt-Toiyabe national forest and Mt Jefferson. Since we were not sure about the availability of services in NV-376, we drove upto Tonopah on US-6, filled the tank and continued on NV-376. NV-376 was indeed very scenic. The road was deserted but not as much as the ET highway.

































It was a good decision to fill up the tank at Tonopah as I didn't find any gas station on NV-376.

Warm Springs - Tonopah - Austin through Big Smoky Valley:

US-50 - The Loneliest Road in America:

The US-50 stretch in Nevada is called the Loneliest Road in America. This passes through beautiful valleys and basins. There were multiple sections of combinations of arrow straight roads and twisted roads alternating between valleys and basins. The traffic on this route was very light. We hardly found any vehicle or human being in the 350 miles stretch between Austin and I-15 intersection at Utah except in the former mining towns of Eureka, Ely and Delta. It's a good idea to fill up the tank at Eureka as there is no service for next 80 miles until Ely. Ely is the only major town in this stretch of US-50. The next major town is Delta, UT which is around 153 miles from Ely.

I found US-50 between Austin and Salina more scenic than the ET highway or the Big Smoky Valley. It passes through the Northern fringes of Great basin National Park in Nevada. There is lot of history behind this route which are mostly related to the silver boom of 1860s. Eureka is known as the "Friendliest Town on the Loneliest Road in America". I didn't interact with anyone there to find out if it's true or not :).

A few pics from the Nevada portion of US-50:

Baker Archaeological Site in the Northern fringes of Great Basin National park:





It's raining in the distant mountains of Great Basin National Park:





It's a complete moonscape once US-50 enters Utah:

US-50 section in Utah:

The quality of tarmac in Utah was not as good as Nevada. Nevada had super smooth roads whereas it was a bit bumpy in Utah.

Near Sevier Lake:

























350 miles stretch of US-50 from Austin, NV to Salina, UT


It was one of the most satisfying drive of my life. Driving on US-50 is quite a experience. Pictures just depict 15% of the actual scenic beauty out there. It has to be experienced by visiting the place in person. It was almost 9:30 PM MT by the time we reached our hotel at Salina. We stayed at Econo Lodge. It was a decent hotel. The manager at the hotel was a gentleman from Gujarat and he gave us a good room right next to parking lot.

The room was decent for the price we payed:


We could not find any traces of extraterrestrial activities anywhere around the ET highway or US-50. All we could see is just few stickers and paintings of UFOs on the sign boards all along the ET highway. Therefore we decided to search for any alien activity in few arches the next day ;).

Day 2:

Our seconds day's plan was to visit Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park in Utah. Both the national parks are around 150 miles from Salina and takes just 2 hours. Staying at Moab, UT would have made sense for us since both these national parks are very near to it but I decided against it for 4 reasons:

1. The I-70 between Salina is very scenic which passes through Fishlake National Forest, northern fringes of Capitol Reef National Park and numerous scenic canyons.
2. The speed limit on I-70 is 80 MPH which is unheard of in Northeast :).
3. Moab is a touristy town and had read in few blogs that the hotels in the town are always over crowded. Salina in comparison is a very calm and peaceful town.
4. Reaching Moab the previous night after driving through ET highway and US-50 would not have been possible.

Started from the Econo Lodge at 6 AM and took the I-70 towards Arches national Park. As I had read in few blogs, the I-70 was indeed very scenic.

Few pics taken from a rest area on I-70 between Salina and Crescent Junction. I-70 winding through a canyon:














Runaway truck ramps heads straight into a canyon:


US-191 between Crescent Junction and Moab:

Arches National Park:

We arrived at the Arches National Park entrance at around 8 AM MT. Since it was Monday, the park was not crowded and we could quickly get through the toll booth.

The scenic drive inside the park:





























The initial plan was to hike to the Delicate Arch. The temperature was pretty high early in the morning and my wife gave up half the way through the hike. We abandoned the hike and came back to the base.

Only a glimpse of the Delicate Arch from the viewpoint at the parking lot:

North and South Windows:

After abandoning the hike to Delicate Arch, we decided to visit the Windows and the Turret Arch:


























The Turret Arch:

Walked on the trail around the Windows:

















Drove around the other scenic places in the park:

Canyonlands National Park:

After spending sufficient amount of time in the Arches National Park, we drove to the Canyonlands National Park which is just 30 miles away. I had read reports about Arches getting crowded but didn't see any big crowd anywhere.

Approach road to Canyonlands:





The park was not at all crowded. Getting into the park was a breeze:

Few more views of Canyonlands from the Grand View Point, Orange Cliffs, Buck Canyon and Green River overlooks: